The Wishing Box
by wideopeneyes
Summary: Gippal steals Rikku's most prized possession.


"Give it _back_." 

"No way. Possession is nine-tenths of the law." He tossed the little box up in the air, catching it neatly even as she lunged for it. He laughed, holding it over her head. They'd played little games like this in their childhood, though in the past it has often involved Buddy and Brother as well, all the boys playing keep-away with Rikku's doll or her favorite hair-ribbon and on occasion her diary – but only when they were feeling particularly daring.

As she'd gotten older, she'd begun fighting back, filching little things of theirs to bargain with. He remembered a time in his mid-teens that she'd threatened to torch his _favorite _pair of boxers with her newly-acquired Fira spell if he didn't return her diary. He'd seen the glee in her eyes as she dangled aloft his underwear, and he'd promptly surrendered it.

He hadn't done it in maybe a year or so, but when he'd caught her holding a wooden box, he'd just _had _to find out what was so intriguing. And when he'd snuck up behind her and asked about it, she'd jumped guiltily and tried to hide it, so he just _knew _that whatever was in it, it must be pretty damn good.

So he'd distracted her with a plate of cookies and slipped it from the pouch at her waist while she'd been otherwise occupied. She'd caught him as he tried to slip away to examine the contents, and soon they'd become engaged in their current altercation.

She wasn't tall enough to grab it from his hand, not when he held it so high over his head, and she didn't have anything she could barter for it. She couldn't retrieve it without causing him serious bodily injury, and she didn't exactly relish the thought of that. Yet, anyway.

"Please give it back, Gippal?" She fluttered her eyelashes, clasping her hands together entreatingly. "It's very important to me. I would hate to lose it," she added sweetly.

He tapped her nose with one finger. "No," he replied just as sweetly.

She stamped her foot in her irritation. "Gippal, it's _mine_! You can't just _take _things that belong to other people! That's _stealing_!"

"It's sort of my specialty." He leaned back as she made another desperate grab for it. "Tell you what. I'll give it back if you promise to show me what's in it."

She paled. "No."

"Why not? D'you keep your panties in it or something?" He laughed at the angry flush that spread across her features.

"It's _private_," she said. "I wouldn't show it to _anybody_. It's…it's a very personal thing." She twisted her fingers nervously. She hesitated a moment, considering whether or not she should tell him anything else. "It's a wishing box," she said softly. "The things you put in it are the things that are the most special, the most important, the things you want most in the whole world. The things no one else but you ever gets to see. It's for your heart's desires. It's not…it's _not _something you ever show to people."

"Ah," he said, looking the box over briefly. "Well, then, you're welcome to try to steal it back. How does it open, anyway?"

A little sound of anger tore from her throat. Her explanation, her little plea had accomplished nothing. "You're _not_ giving it back?"

"Nope. I'm going to find out what you want so bad." He shook the box, listening to the clatter of things in it. "Sounds like there's quite a few things in there."

"No." Her voice was just a whisper. "No, just one."

"Just one? Why?"

"I-it's...it's a really big wish."

"So how do I open it?" He looked the box over – it seemed to have no hinges whatsoever. The wood was pretty, varnished until it gleamed, covered entirely with intricate geometric patterns. It really was a work of art. He shook it again. Something was _definitely _rattling around in there. Only, how had it gotten in there?

"You don't even know how to open it," she pleaded. "So just give it back, okay?"

"Not a chance. I'll figure it out eventually. You'd better hurry if you're gonna try to steal it back." He grinned down at her.

She planted her fist in his diaphragm. Though the air whooshed out of his lungs, he managed to keep a firm grip on the box.

"_Jerk_!" She stomped down _hard_ on his foot, and raced out of the temple.

--

"So." He sat down on his bed, examining the box. He'd had it for over a day now, though he didn't imagine he'd be hanging onto it much longer. Cid's girl had already made four rescue attempts, and she was getting more and more sneaky and ingenious every time. "How the hell do I work this thing? It's a box; she said as much." He ran his fingers over the smooth surface.

"How can it be a box when it doesn't _open_?" He was growing more and more irritated. Obviously it opened, it had things inside it. He just didn't know _how _to open it, and that was the problem. Maybe it required magic? But he couldn't try it on the off chance that it might actually _hurt _the thing. Rikku would probably kill him in his sleep if anything happened to it. Obviously it was important to her.

He didn't know why she couldn't just _show _him. He was _dying _to see what Rikku wanted so badly. It wasn't like he'd think less of her; they'd been friends more or less their whole lives – and he'd _wanted _to be more than that, only she'd never shown any interest in him at all. It was frustrating that she couldn't see his teasing for what it was – the kindergarten antics of a boy who had a crush on a girl. Ruffling her figurative feathers was his juvenile way of saying _I like you_, and she was oblivious.

He sighed heavily. "Well, I'll figure it out sooner or later. Might as well sleep on it." He tucked the box under his mound of pillows and turned out the light.

--

He caught her wrist as she slipped her fingers beneath his pillow. "Nice try, kid."

"Damn. How long were you awake?" She withdrew her wrist from his grasp.

"Long enough to see you snooping in my underwear drawer. Like I'd keep it _there_," he scoffed, sitting up.

"Well, _I _didn't know that." She backed a step away. "Can't you just take pity on me this _once_?" she asked.

"Not a chance." He stood, moving her towards his bedroom door. "Buh-bye. Come back when it's light."

"That's not _fair_," she cried. "It's _mine_, and I…I want it _back_. Gippal, my _mother _gave it to me! It was hers before she gave it to me, damn it, it's _important_."

"I'm not gonna damage it," he assured her. "As soon as I get a look inside, you'll get it back, safe and sound. My word of honor."

"I _don't _want anyone to see what's in it!"

He gently moved her through the doorway into the hall. "You can't always get what you want. There's a bedroom down the hall if you want to spend the night," he said. "And a word of advice: lose the shoes when you're breaking and entering. They make too much noise." And he shut the door in her face.

Maybe _she _was upset, but Gippal was elated. She'd given him the breakthrough he needed. If the box had at one point belonged to her mother, _Cid_ probably knew how to work it.

--

"So you _stole _this from my daughter?" Cid held the box carefully. He hadn't seen it in many, many years – since his wife had given it to their very young daughter. Rikku had promptly hidden it away and _kept _it hidden. As her most prized possession, she kept it safe and secure. He'd almost forgotten it.

"Yeah. It was brilliant, you would've been proud." Gippal kicked his feet up on the small table in front of the couch he was sitting on. Cid had been more like a father than Gippal's own good-for-nothing father had been. He'd taught Gippal all the things Gippal's father should've, only Gippal's dad had been too busy getting drunk and running around on his mother to have much of a care for his only son. So it had been Cid and his wife, Lara, who had taken much of the burden off of Gippal's mother, and Cid had been the one to teach Gippal to steal, to pick locks, to forage for food and treasure in the vast desert of Sanubia. He'd taught Gippal to hunt fiends and the spells necessary to protect himself. And in return, Gippal had spent much of his young life protecting Rikku.

"So, what do you want me to do with it?"

"Open it. You _do _know how, don't you?" Gippal eyed the older man suspiciously. _Surely_ he wouldn't try to make Gippal pay for his service. He was a _father_, it was practically his _job _to make his daughter miserable. And Cid respected ingenuity. Simply getting the box away from Rikku deserved _something_.

"Yeah, I know how. It's not hard, once you figure it out." He tossed the box back to Gippal. "You give that right back to my girl when you've got it figured out. She'll kill you if it gets damaged," Cid advised.

"What, you're not gonna open it for me?" Gippal frowned.

"Rikku'd kill _me _if I opened it for you. D'you think I've gotten stupid in my old age?"

"Well, give me a _hint _at least," Gippal urged. "I mean, I don't want to scratch it or anything. I just wanna get a look inside, I don't wanna _destroy _the thing."

"It's not magic-operated," Cid said. "All you'll need to open it is your hands. You're a smart boy, you'll figure it out eventually."

Gippal wasn't so sure. _He _thought he'd tried everything. Obviously he wasn't quite as smart as e liked to think he was. Sighing, he tossed the little box onto the couch away from him, content, for the moment, to _glare_ it into submission.

As it slid across the couch, he heard the soft sound of wood sliding against wood. It came to rest against a pillow. Gippal glanced to Cid, who was looking at the box. It looked a little…odd. Like maybe one side was a little longer than it had before. Had something slid out? But _how_?

He reached for it, turning it onto the awkward-looking side. The wood paneling had slid a little to the side, resting off-center on the rest of the box. For a moment he knew sheer terror – he'd _broken _Rikku's box, she was going to _murder _him, and no one was _ever _going to find the body when she was done with him!

Then it hit him – the box didn't have hinges, it had _sliding panels_. It didn't _need _hinges because the way it opened was _supposed _to be a secret. He clicked it back into place for a moment, studying the box in its entirety. It was practically seamless – likely you wouldn't notice it unless you knew what you were looking for, and he hadn't.

"Ah, you've got it now. Good job." Cid grinned. "Now it'll be the truth when I tell her I didn't have anything to do with it."

Gippal practically twitched with excitement. He was so close to it! He darted a guilty glance towards Cid.

"I gotta go." He couldn't open it in front of Cid, it was Rikku's secret box. It wasn't for just _anyone _to see. "I'll be in next week to collect the next batch of parts. Thanks for your help!" He ran for the door before Cid could protest.

--

In Djose, he locked himself in his room and pulled down the window shade. He didn't want to be interrupted, not even by Rikku's attempts at recovering her precious box. He wanted a fair shot at getting a good, long look at whatever it was that she wanted so bad before returning it to her. Who knew? If she didn't kill him, and whatever she wanted wasn't _too _expensive, maybe he'd buy it for her for her next birthday.

He found the panel again, sliding it until it clicked into place. Then he rotated the box a little, pressing gently to reveal the next sliding panel. The ornate panels practically melted away as his fingers pushed them into their proper positions, slowly revealing the opening into which she'd placed her heart's desire for safe-keeping. Finally, the secret of the box entirely revealed, he gently dumped its contents out onto his bed. The tiny pictospheres clinked together – there must've been twenty of them or more. He picked one up gently, touching the small button that would reveal the image it contained. The picture jumped up, bright and vivid in the semi-darkness of his room.

It was one he hadn't seen in a long time, one he'd almost forgotten. Him, several years younger, back in the Crimson Squad. He _knew _it was one of his own pictospheres – Paine had taken it, and he'd kept it in (and several others) in a locked drawer in his office. She was a better thief than _he _was, to have snatched it right from under his nose. Who _knew _how long she'd had it? He'd never missed it.

He checked them all, one at a time. All him. In some he was a child, pictospheres she'd taken back in Bikanel. Some he'd never seen before, obviously taken in a moment when he hadn't been paying attention to anything going on around him. But they were _all _of him, all secured in a box she'd counted on no one being able to open – Rikku's most prized possessions, and also her dearest wish. He thought his heart might break right out of his chest.

She hadn't wanted him to know, had made several attempts to retrieve it, all to keep him in the dark. Probably she'd been petrified of what he'd say if he ever found out about her little collection. Obviously she hadn't been as indifferent to him as he'd thought, if _he _was her wish.

Now he could return it to her, safe and sound. Now he could ask her forgiveness for taking something so precious and personal to her. And maybe he could ask her out on a date – a _real _one, with movies and dinner and dancing and kissing, not just the typical hanging-out they did with all their other friends.

And that, he thought, was probably _his _dearest wish. Now if he could only _tell _her so.

--

Rikku sighed heavily, swirling her straw in her pretty girly drink. It was a Mai Tai or a Fuzzy Navel or something like that, she couldn't quite remember. Probably she was going to need a hell of a lot more alcohol before the night was through. She'd all but exhausted all her viable options for thieving back her box.

"You've got to stop that, it's driving me _nuts_," Tidus said, curling his hand around his beer.

"Stop what?"

"_Sighing _like that. It's damn depressing." He grimaced. "If Yuna catches you sighing like that around me, she'll think I'm being mean to you and I'll catch hell. So quit it." He looked over his shoulder for his wife, but she hadn't emerged from the restroom.

"I can't help it. I'm…worried." _Scared shitless_ was more like it. God, what _was_ she going to do if Gippal managed to get the box open? She didn't even want to _think _about it. What if he asked her not to come around Djose anymore?

"Think positive," Tidus instructed.

"Maybe he'll give up," she sighed. She could only hope she got so lucky. "Maybe he'll get frustrated with it and just give it back to me."

"Well, now's your chance to find out," Tidus said, nodding towards the door. Gippal had just walked into the bad and was slowly winding his way towards the bar where Tidus and Rikku were seated.

She looked up slowly, dreading what she might see. She couldn't quite bring herself to meet his eyes.

Gently he set the box down beside her. "I…opened it," he said softly. "You can have it back now, just like I promised."

She rocketed off the barstool in a flurry of motion, snatching the box off the counter.

"You…you…" She couldn't think of words bad enough to call him. Her cheeks were flushed a bright red, but even _she _didn't know if it was with anger or mortification. "You _bastard._" She grappled behind her, fingers catching on a glass ashtray. She flung it at him – it hit his shoulder, bouncing off onto the floor. It didn't help all that much to relieve her anger, to soothe her embarrassment. "I _hate _you!" She reached behind her in search of more possible missiles. She lobbed a bowl of peanuts his way, and turned to run before she started crying. She didn't want him to see her crying over her crushed dreams.

She darted out of the bar, onto the Highroad. It was still a mile or more back to Djose, but even further than that to Luca, and she was sure she wasn't going to make it that far. Better to find a place to hide out for a little while until she could hitch a ride with Yuna and Tidus back to Besaid.

She ran as hard and as fast as she could. She ran until her lungs ached, until she couldn't draw a decent breath. She ignored his hoarse shout, ignored the thunderous pounding of his feet on the dirt road behind her. She thought only about making her escape, about hiding away on Gagazet or maybe even _Zanarkand _until the whole awful episode had blown over.

He caught her wrist, jerking her backwards. She squawked indignantly, struggling to wrench her wrist from his firm grip.

"Let go!"

"Hold _still _for a minute! Dammit, Rikku, why did you _run_?" His arms looped around her, squeezing her tightly against him. One hand covered the back of her head, forcing her face into his chest. Her arms were sandwiched between them, fingers still clutching her precious keepsake, caught tightly by the circle of his arms around her. She wriggled furiously for a moment until she realized the futility of her struggle. He wasn't letting her go any time soon. She tried to swallow down her tears, tried to control her harsh, gasping sobs, and failed miserably. Vaguely she became aware of his fingers sliding caressingly through her hair. His lips brushed her temple, murmuring soothing, nonsensical endearments.

"It's okay," he was saying. "Don't cry, honey. Don't cry, it'll be all right, I promise."

But she _wanted _to cry. Her throat hurt, her chest hurt, her eyes burned with trying to hold back the flood of tears she wanted desperately to release. And she was _mad_, too. How _dared _he pity her!

She buried her face in his shirt and cried until she didn't think she could possibly cry any more, and _still _he stroked her hair and rubbed his fingers up and down her spine. She sniffled. Her mascara was probably running down her face. She also desperately needed to blow her nose, but she wasn't _about _to ask him for a handkerchief.

"Better?" He swiped her cheeks with his fingers, and when it didn't help as much as he'd hoped, he dug in his pocket, fishing out a handkerchief. "You look like a raccoon. Your mascara's all over you face. Probably all over my shirt, too," he remarked conversationally, scrubbing it off of her cheeks. Then he folded up the handkerchief, pressing it over her nose. "Blow," he said.

"I will not." She pulled away. "That's _gross_."

"Yeah, well, your nose is about to drip all over the place." He pressed it back over her nose. "_Blow_."

She blew.

"I'm sorry," she said finally.

"Don't be." He folded up the handkerchief a couple of times and shoved it back in his pocket. "It'll wash out."

"I meant about…about the box." She moved away, turning a little so he couldn't see her face, so he couldn't see how badly she wanted to cry again.

"Why're _you _sorry? _I'm _the one who took the box." He rocked a little on his heels, feeling a little awkward. "But I'm not sorry for that, Rikku."

She rounded on him incredulously. "_What_?"

"I'm _not_ sorry I took your box. I know it was important to you, and I know you were embarrassed, but would you have ever told me if I hadn't taken it and found out myself?"

"O-of course not," she said. "It's not…I couldn't have…you wouldn't have wanted…" She couldn't seem to form even one complete thought.

He moved a little closer. A firefly flickered over his left shoulder, weaving a little beam of light into the night. "Wouldn't I?" He reached out to grab one of her hands, cocooning it in the heat of his. Her fingers were icy, but his warmed them. "Wouldn't I, Rikku?"

Her brows drew together in consternation. "But you _don't_. You _can't _have…have just not _noticed _this whole time."

"Well, you're not exactly _obvious_." He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, sighing. His fingers clutched hers a little tighter. She looked down at their linked hands for a moment, a little confused.

"So you're not…mad?"

"_Mad_? Baby, I've been trying to lure you into my romantic clutches since you were fifteen." He tugged her hand, and she stumbled a little towards him. She bit her lip, studying his face for any signs of deception. She didn't know if she could live through it if he was just making fun of her.

"But you were always teasing me. Taking my stuff. Reading my _diary_." She didn't understand it.

"I had to find out if you liked me or not _somehow_. You never wrote _anything _about me in it. I was a little hurt." _And a little discouraged_.

"I never put anything in my diary that I didn't want you guys reading. I put all my important stuff in here." She shook the little box. It didn't make a sound. Surprised, she worked the panels furiously through their paces. "It's _empty_. What did you do with my pictospheres?"

"I took them out," he said. "Besides, they're not all _yours_, are they?"

She colored guiltily. So she'd filched a few from his collection. It was _his _fault for not noticing.

"I want them back," she said.

"I've got them at the temple, you'll have to come back with me if you want them. And," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, "you can only have them back if you're going to put them somewhere else. They can't go back in that box."

"Why not?" She frowned. She'd _liked _keeping them in there, keeping them safe and close to her.

"It's for things you don't have yet, isn't it?" His thumb stroked the back of her hand, his fingers squeezed hers a little tighter. Maybe his voice was smooth and even, but his body language was nervous and insecure. She closed her eyes, savoring the feeling of his arms around her, his cheek brushing hers. She wanted to remember this moment – the moment when she'd thought she'd lost everything but had in fact _gained _everything instead. Her heart didn't hurt anymore. Her eyes still stung with tears, but not the bitter, choking ones of a few minutes before. She wasn't afraid of his censure anymore.

"Okay. I'll find something new to put in it." She hid a smile.

"Just as long as it's not pictospheres of anyone _else_." He kissed her cheek, kissed the tip of her nose, then, finally, kissed her lips for the first time _ever_. Her eyelids fluttered shut, she rose on her tiptoes. His hand cupped her head, tilting it back a little for easier access. She made a little hungry sound in her throat.

"For god's sake, this is a _public _road, you know. Do I have to come over there and throw water on you two?" Yuna crossed her arms disapprovingly. "Get a room! More appropriately, get _two _rooms. You're not married."

"And _you're _not my _mother_." Rikku stuck her tongue out.

"No, but I'll bet good money Uncle Cid'll want to have a word with Gippal about this –"

"You wouldn't!"

"Nah, she wouldn't." Tidus slid a hand over his wife's mouth. "I'll keep her occupied, you two get out of here, quick."

"Thanks!" Gippal grabbed Rikku's hand, and they took off for Djose temple.

"So," he said breathlessly as they burst in the door. "Just like that?"

"Yeah," she agreed, falling onto the couch with him. Her nose bumped his, their lips brushed and clung. "Just like that."


End file.
